Leave it to The Manimals to channel transformation through glitter, grit, and full-throttle rock theatre. With their latest single ‘Gold’, the NYC outfit douses ancient mysticism in glam polish, turning Jungian introspection and alchemical metaphors into a fire-breathing, hip-shaking anthem.
Written by frontwoman Haley Bowery during the fog of lockdown, ‘Gold’ is no idle reflection. It’s a ritual in motion, soundtracked by thumping glam-rock riffs, disco shimmer, and a fever-dream sense of grandeur. The lyrics read like a hymn to chaos, as a catalyst- “to burn, to purge, to cry, baby, to die”– before arriving at ecstatic rebirth. If Bowie was the starman and Marc Bolan the electric warrior, Bowery positions herself here as a high priestess of the floorboards, leading a congregation through the only true church she knows: the live gig.
It sounds like it was made to bring the walls down. With production by Ben Schrier, the track blasts open with swaggering guitar struts and Bowery’s signature vocals before pivoting into a bass-driven funk break that feels like Studio 54-via-CBGB. The chorus is a collision of heady lyricism and pelvic-forward rhythm that makes being emotionally scorched sound, well, kind of like a blast.
Michael Jayne’s vocals lock with Bowery’s in the song’s defiant bridge- “fuck with our brightness, we’re richer than Midas”– a line that feels less like a boast and more like a dare. The post-chorus guitar solo howls with abandon, anchoring the song’s cosmic leanings with raw, very earthly distortion. It’s glam with guts, disco with dirt under the nails.
What’s most striking about ‘Gold’ is how confidently it plays both sides: esoteric and immediate, tongue-in-cheek and completely sincere. The final moments drift into eerie choral echoes, like a cult’s parting benediction. You don’t listen to this track so much as you submit to it.
The Manimals, long masters of balancing chaos and clarity, camp and catharsis, have struck something potent with ‘Gold’. Catch the flame while it’s burning. Just know you might come out the other side changed.
